* NRAI probe finds that senior shooters wrongly accused Kazakh of asking juniors for sexual favours * Asks its Athletes Commission to hear matter
A day after a news report claimed that six leading women shooters, including Olympians Anjali Bhagwat and Suma Shirur, had accused foreign coach Stanislav Lapidus of asking sexual favours from junior shooters, it has emerged that they were lying. An internal probe conducted by the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) found Bhagwat & Co. guilty of falsely framing the veteran coach. Why, NRAI chief Raninder Singh described the story as "cooked up" and said the shooters intended to harm the reputation of the governing body.
The six female rifle shooters — Bhagwat, Suma, Ayonika Paul, Kuheli Gangulee, Tejaswani Sawant and Lajja Gauswami — and Olympian Sanjeev Rajput accused the Kazakh of making "sexual overtures" and forcing junior shooters into having "physical relations" with him. They alleged that Lapidus promised the juniors of "personal coaching". Why, they also said he was rude, arrogant and doing everything in his power to "finish off" the careers of the country's top marksmen.
The senior shooters wanted to settle scores with Lapidus. The coach came across as a strict taskmaster with a no-nonsense approach. If Bhagwat had a public spat with him in Hannover in May (ahead of the Munich World Cup), then Rajput was involved in a heated argument with the Kazakh before the 2012 London Olympics.
Following their "baseless" allegations, the NRAI has forwarded the case to its Athletes Commission, headed by Arjuna Awardee Moraad Ali Khan. The NRAI has mandated the commission to conduct an impartial inquiry into the matter and impose sanctions on these shooters.
Bhagwat and Suma, who are part of the commission, have been asked to recuse themselves. Singh said the letter, which was forwarded by the aggrieved shooters, did not mention a single incident.
"When we asked Bhagwat and other shooters to substantiate their claims, they had nothing to share with us. They could not provide us the details of any incident where they felt that such sexual overtures have been made. In fact, Bhagwat herself told me that she wrote the mail in a fit of anger. The reaction of the other shooters was also the same. They said Bhagwat told them to become co-signatories and they put their names in," Singh said here on Thursday.
"In the letter, it has been mentioned that Lapidus asked one of the junior girls her age. When she said she was 17, the coach told her 'to come back when you are 21'. That's all. Now, where is the sexual overture in this sentence? What the coach meant was that he couldn't impart coaching to her as he only trains shooters above the age of 21. He doesn't look after the junior coaching programme anymore. He only deals with seniors," he added.
Singh said Lapidus was left traumatised. He even offered to resign, but the NRAI officials told him to stay on.
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